Divinae institutiones

Item Information

Title:
Divinae institutiones
Former owner:
Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle, Sir, 1867-1962
Former owner:
Thompson, Henry Yates, 1838-1928
Former owner:
Morris, William, 1834-1896
Creator:
Lactantius, approximately 240-approximately 320
Date:
[1425–1475]
Format:
Books
Manuscripts
Genre:
Manuscripts, Medieval--Italy
humanistic scripts
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Italy
Embossed stamps
Vellum bindings
Marginalia
Inscriptions
Illuminations
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Places:
Italy > Venetan (region) > Venezia (province) > Venice
Extent:
297 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 323 x 220 (192 x 120) mm bound to 33 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/zw1324704
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[Italy]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1-297: Lactantius, Divinae Institutiones LACTANTII FIRMIANI DIVINARUM INSTITUTIONUM ADVERSUS GENTES.../MAGNO ET EXCELLENTI ingenio viri.../...quod ipse promisit a domino consequamur. EXPLICIT. Correctus totus.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Written in Italy (possibly Venice) in the mid-fifteenth century.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: On fol. 1, arms of first owner (a chief checky) covered by another early arms (in a border argent and azure, argent three towers azure; 16th-century note on fol. 1 noting that Pope Gelasius declared Lactantius' work to be non-canonical. William Morris (Kelmscott House bookplate inside front cover), his sale Sotheby's London, 10 December 1898 (no. 745) to Henry Yates Thompson for £16, Thompson's annotated bookplate on the inside of the upper cover, with the price in his code: bs.e.e.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by Sydney Cockerell for the Boston Public Library on 30 January 1901 (his notes inside front cover); BPL bookplate inside front cover.
Notes (date):
This date is inferred.
Notes (citation):
Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, I: 920
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: professio multo melior...
Collation: Parchment, fol. iii (later paper) + 297 + iii (later paper) ; 1-29¹⁰ 30¹⁰⁻³ (three cancels after fol. 297) ; some signatures preserved in lower margin, formatted as a letter (indicating the quire) and number (indicated the leaf of the quire); e.g. fol. 53 signed E.3, fol. 104 signed L.4 ; most catchwords preserved in lower right corner of final verso of each quire. Modern pencil foliation, upper outer corner of each page (e.g. 1r, 1v, etc.).
Layout: One column, 27 lines. Ruled in blind.
Script: Written in a humanistic bookhand in black ink with red or black rubrics in epigraphic capitals.
Decoration: Two-line initial in gold in colors, fol. 10; 8-line white-vine initials in gold on colors at the opening of each book, at fol. 1, 45v, 84v, 130, 175v, 212v, and 257, with vines and gold balls extending into margin, that on fol. 1 somewhat more elaborate, surmounted by a peacock; in the lower margin of fol. 1r, arms (in a border argent and azure, argent three towers azure, overlaying original arms, a chief checky) in a wreath in colors, held by cherubs, surrounded by leafy vines and gold balls.
Binding: 16th-17th century vellum over pasteboards, three paper flyleaves at front and back, no watermark, string loop closures, joints reparied, "Lactantius Firmanus" on spine.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Zoltan Haraszti, "Medieval manuscripts in the Library," More Books III (1928): 62.
Notes (language):
In Latin with some Greek.
Identifier:
06_01_018637
Call #:
RARE BKS MS f Med.14
MS G.401.10 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999059855203